Google offers first developer boards for its Project Ara modular smartphone
Google hopes to launch its ‘build-it-yourself’ Project Ara smartphone next year and in preparation, the technology giant is accepting applications for its first development boards.
Context & Ripple Effects
Project Ara is Google's ATAP bet that the smartphone becomes a build-it-yourself platform — the April deep-dive on how Ara reinvents the smartphone laid out the block-replacement vision, and two weeks ago Google named its first 100 beta testers. Today's step opens applications for the first development boards, the hardware module-makers and app developers need to actually build for the platform ahead of a hoped-for consumer launch next year.
The story travelled unusually widely for a dev-kit announcement — Ars Technica, TechCrunch, CNET and BGR all ran it — reflecting how much attention rides on whether Google can turn a research-project idea into a shipping product category.
First-order effects
- Selected developers gain their first physical access to Ara hardware, moving the project from ATAP demos toward a working third-party module ecosystem ahead of the targeted 2015 launch.
Second-order effects
- Component makers now have a concrete reason to design swappable modules against Google's specification rather than waiting, while handset rivals face pressure to answer whether modularity is a niche experiment or a platform they must match.
Third-order effects
- If the developer pipeline holds, smartphones could begin shifting from fixed integrated devices toward open hardware platforms where third parties own entire component categories — with Google setting the standard the way it did for Android software.
The trend: Google is applying its Android playbook of open platforms and third-party ecosystems to smartphone hardware itself, using staged developer access to de-risk Project Ara's 2015 launch.